Peripheral No More: Rethinking Norm Diffusion through the Post-Soviet Experience

Speaker: Julia Vassileva, Postdoctoral Fellow, International Security Program

The seminar introduces a new framework for understanding how post-Soviet states engage with international norms. Drawing on a comparative study of Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine, it  rethinks dominant accounts of norm diffusion that assume linear adaptation through socialization or cultural fit. 

Based on 150 elite interviews and process tracing, the paper identifies three mechanisms (strategic appropriation, geopolitical recalibration, and crisis commitment) that explain how political elites adopt norms instrumentally, selectively, or under wartime duress. By recentering power, alignment, and contingency, this research adds granularity to traditional assumptions in diffusion theory and offers a framework for explaining how global norms travel and are transformed in contested and transitional orders. 

Admittance is on a first come–first served basis.  Tea and Coffee Provided.